Product Owner (100%)

MDPI AG

Basel

On-site

CHF 90,000 - 120,000

Full time

14 days+

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Benefits offered by this job

Academic contribution

Flexible hours

Team-building events

Global training system

Collaborative culture

Company retreat

Insurance coverage for accidents/daily

Basel location

Job summary

MDPI is seeking a Product Owner to shape data-driven product experiences across our digital platforms. You will own the backlog, translate business needs into user stories, and collaborate with developers and stakeholders to deliver measurable increments.

This on-site role requires strong Agile/Scrum experience, excellent English communication, and a track record of prioritizing work based on business value and user outcomes.

Qualifications

Bachelor's degree in a related field; Master's degree is a plus.
2+ years of experience in product ownership or similar role.
Experience in Agile/Scrum environments with backlog management and sprint planning.
Proven ability to collaborate with stakeholders across functions.
Strong user story creation, acceptance criteria, and value-based prioritization.
Experience with product analytics and KPI tracking.
Familiarity with Jira and Microsoft 365 applications.
Excellent communication, collaboration, and organizational skills.
Ability to work independently while managing multiple priorities.

Responsibilities

Own the product backlog for the assigned product area and prioritize by business value.
Translate business requirements into well-defined user stories with clear acceptance criteria.
Facilitate sprint planning, reviews, and backlog refinement sessions.
Collaborate with the development team to ensure deliverables meet expectations.
Act as the main business liaison and voice of the customer where no dedicated Product Manager is assigned.
Track and report delivery and engagement metrics; run KPI reviews with stakeholders.

Skills

Product ownership

Agile/Scrum

Stakeholder collaboration

User story creation

Data-informed decision-making

English communication

Communication

Problem-solving

Organization

Education

Bachelor's degree

Master's degree

Tools

Jira

Microsoft 365

Job description

Join us in shaping the future of user engagement and personalization at MDPI. As a Product Owner, you will work closely with stakeholders and development teams to deliver innovative, data-driven product experiences across our digital platforms.

Your work will directly contribute to helping researchers and readers discover relevant content, engage more deeply with our journals and platforms, and benefit from a more personalized digital experience.

As part of our commitment to fostering a collaborative team environment, this role requires working fully on-site.

Tasks & Responsibilities

Core Responsibilities

Own the product backlog for the assigned product area, ensuring prioritization reflects business value and stakeholder needs.

Translate business requirements into well-defined user stories with clear acceptance criteria.

Facilitate sprint planning, reviews, and backlog refinement sessions, running the team’s delivery cadence.

Collaborate closely with the development team to ensure requirements are understood and deliverables meet expectations, translating strategy into deliverable, measurable increments.

Manage stakeholder expectations and communicate delivery timelines effectively, acting as the primary business liaison and voice of the customer for the product area where no dedicated Product Manager is assigned.

Additional Responsibilities

Track and report on delivery and engagement metrics, identifying and addressing impediments to team velocity, and run KPI reviews with stakeholders against a shared scorecard.

Maintain a ready backlog covering upcoming sprint planning cycles and raise readiness risks early.

Ensure non-functional requirements, including performance, scalability, maintainability, and privacy/consent guardrails, are represented in planning and prioritization, facilitating trade-off discussions.

Transparently communicate delivery progress, blockers, dependencies, and risks to the development team and stakeholders.

Requirements

Bachelor's degree in Business, Computer Science, Data Science, or a related field; a Master's degree is a plus.

2+ years of experience in product ownership, backlog management, or a similar product delivery role.

Experience working in Agile/Scrum environments, including backlog management and sprint planning.

Proven ability to collaborate with stakeholders across business, engineering, and other functions.

Strong understanding of user story creation, acceptance criteria definition, and value-based prioritization.

Experience with product analytics, KPI tracking, experimentation, and data-informed decision-making.

Familiarity with backlog management tools such as Jira and Microsoft 365 applications.

Strong communication, collaboration, problem-solving, and organizational skills.

Ability to work independently while managing multiple priorities in a fast-paced environment.

Professional English communication skills (minimum C1 level).

Product Owner certification (e.g., PSPO, CSPO) and experience with user engagement or digital product environments are considered an advantage.

What we offer

The opportunity to contribute to the academic/scientific community;

Flexible working hours;

Team bond strengthening through team-building events;

Professional growth opportunities with our global training system;

Working in a collaborative and socially responsible team;

Company retreat facility;

Full-coverage insurance for accidents/daily sickness;

Prime location near Basel train station and city center;

And more.

About MDPI

A pioneer in scholarly open access publishing, MDPI has supported academic communities since 1996. Our mission is to foster open scientific exchange in all forms, across all disciplines. We operate more than 500 diverse, peer-reviewed, open access journals supported by over 66,000 academic editors. We serve scholars from around the world to ensure the latest research is openly and broadly available.

MDPI is headquartered in Switzerland with additional offices in Europe, Asia and North America. We are committed to ensuring that high quality research is made available as quickly as possible. We also support sustainability projects, with sustainability as a key theme in many journals and through the MDPI Sustainability Foundation.

Initiatives

At MDPI, we develop and maintain various platforms in order to better serve the scientific community. Please find here-below a list of our main platforms: